Stupid rule about sending school an email

[Winebomb]

So preparing to write an email to my sons school about snack times (see my other thread) but just remembered we got a newsletter the first week of school stating:

"If you want to email the class teacher it must be sent between the hours of 8am and 5pm, any emails sent outside of this time will not be responded to"

Now I get there are some parents who are batshit, and think that if they email the teacher at 11pm they will have a response personally at the school gates the following morning, when they drop off their precious little snow flakes.

But isn't sending emails like writing a letter. I will write it at a convienient time, it may have been written at 11pm at night. But I am not batshit and expect it to be read either the next working day or at least the next working day afterwards after it's been delivered.

I work in the private sector and receive/send loads of emails post 5pm, and the same rules apply. Who are these parents who are just being bonkers???

All I can think of is writing my email and timing it in Outlook to be sent within the allotted time. But it just seems pointless.

Sorry probably answered my own AIBU and this is turning into more of a rant! But really!?!? Who are these people...

Just write the email whenever you want, then between the hours of 9am-5pm, briefly log on and hit send. Problem solved.

I admit to not having rtft but I need to leave for work! Maybe it stops pissed emails? More chance of the sender's sobriety at the given times....

I am a teacher (with children) and also think this is a daft rule. However I expect it has come to being due to, as other have said, parents expectations of a prompt response.

I am part time so encourage students to email me if they have issues with homework etc, but also say I don't check my emails constantly on my days off so I may not respond. I also tell them emailing me at 10pm the night before homework is due in to say there is an issue is not acceptable - I give all homeworks a minimum of 4 days to do be done so last minute excuses don't go down well!

I have in the past had a parent complain about me not responding to her urgent email - it was sent at 4:30pm on a Friday (a day I didn't work and my out of office was on to tell her this, plus her child knew), complaint was made to SLT at 9:30 on the Monday morning. Sadly it was met with very little sympathy as I had acutally been in hospital all weekend having unplanned surgery!

A safeguarding issue should be pretty near the top. Which is why it is important that the Head knows it is coming.

I receive emails at all hours of the day and night but I expect that with the work I do.

But I don't think it's unreasonable at all for teachers/schools to refuse to accept emails outside working hours.

I would imagine that many emails to teachers are emotionally charged in some way - parents concerned about their child - and that could be stressful for the teacher to deal with and not something you'd want to spend your free time mulling over.

It's a world apart from me receiving an email at 11pm from a client on the west coast of the USA to complain that something isn't going as planned. 90% of the time I wouldn't give that a second thought until the following morning, and in any case it would never be an email from some completely batshit loon who can't accept their view might differ from mine, which I imagine is an everyday occurrence for teachers.

*LakieLady

Doesn't the same issue apply to teachers, though? They may have other commitments after working hours, and during working hours they can't always reply to email?*

Absolutely! Parents need to appreciate that a teacher's core tasks are teaching and lesson planning, not replying to emails from parents.

I have stated an expectation that I may or may not have met. I am well aware of how busy heads are. My response expectations are reasonable and I am absolutely not expecting a reply today I believe she will read it today at most, I hope to get a response due course but certainly not today. But if you are determined that I am extremely entitled and demanding there is not much I can do about that. It is coincidental that the first truely time sensitive email I have sent to this school was last night.

Had to laugh at to tog rating. Oh yes indeed!
I do not miss my old school...

I don't think I ever had to contact the teacher once when dd3 was at primary

what ARE all these emails about??

Daft rule but I can go one better. We can't email the school, only fax them!

I used to have my work email on my personal phone and it would ping away until quite late at night and even if I didn't pick up the email the knowledge that people were emailing me whilst I was trying to relax would make me feel tense.

Um... turn off notifications? Have two phones?

I was safeguarding gov'nor I know school policy and I know priorities. I am very sympathetic to teachers schedules. I hope all of that means I do not complain lightly and I listen. I try to be a good parent in my conduct towards the school but to my children above that

Daft rule but I can go one better. We can't email the school, only fax them!
Ha ha. Only carrier pigeons allowed at our school.

I receive emails at all hours of the day and night but I expect that with the work I do

Same here - which is why my work phone is off or on silent when I'm not working.

If I have concerns that a client may be heading for some sort of crisis, I keep it on, but on silent. I check my texts and will listen to voicemails from that client only, in case it is a genuine emergency. I'm not obliged to do that though. Only once in 10 years have I felt it necessary to call them back.

The emailing I have found started in year 5+ but it you have children with Autism or any SEN you become familiar with emailing the school and the staff in the office over a range of things from bullying to extreme anxiety to special arrangements for exams.

Hayesking - What are all these emails about?

Snack times apparently

It is no wonder this school has put this rule into effect!

Allthebestnamesareused snack times, really?

surely they won't die if they don't have a snack at all?

Off to look for the famous snack time thread I've missed.

Email is asynchronous communication. You send it when it's convenient for you, I'll read it when it's convenient for me.

Managing expectations for speed of response is a good thing, but this restriction doesn't actually DO that. Parents could still send an email at 11am and be expecting a response before the end of the day (which they shouldn't).

I agree either it is miscommunication or they are lazy idiots.

I wonder if it might reinforce the expectation of a same (working) day response.